I got a Samsung/Android Nexus S phone and love it. It is easy to dial, is lightweight, and gives you a good connection. The rest is gravy.
The Nexus S is made by Samsung, not HTC, like the previous Nexus phone, the Nexus 1—which is quite a bit heavier and not as sleek, but still functional. I don't see a great difference in the general way the phone works compared to the previous version, but some people say the scrolling on the newer Nexus is a little better. However, everyone agrees that the iPhone's scrolling is still better yet.
Let me just say what I really like about the phone: It's sleek and light, with a nice screen and a good camera, and it makes great calls based on voice input.
The big advantage these Google phones have always had is superb voice recognition. With the Nexus S, there is a general voice program on the homepage. You can say "call so-and-so," and it will look up the person in your contacts list and call the number. This is not a breakthrough idea per se, but it works far better than anything else out there. Plus, you can change the commands. For example, you can say "navigate to In and Out Burger" and it will quickly turn on the mapping and deliver turn-by-turn directions. And, again, it seems to get everything correct.
It's remarkable that it's so accurate. Like all the other Android phones, the voice recognition also works well in a comment stream, so you can use your voice to "type" all sorts of things.
The Nexus S also integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar and other cloud apps. A bonus is that it will also interface perfectly with Google Voice. There is a setting that defaults, for example, to Google Voice if you are roaming in Europe. What a money saver! In fact, you can use Google Voice everywhere if you want.
As usual, in the vertical position, the keyboard is too small to making typing any good. In horizontal mode, it's much more usable. But with the voice recognition, you only need to use the keyboard once in a while.
The company has added a standard headphone jack, which is great, and there are two cameras. The camera designated for taking quality pictures and videos is 5 megapixels, which is decent. But the cool thing is that it takes terrific video—perfect for the riots and revolutions coming to a neighborhood near you. I'm very impressed with the camera feature on the Nexus S, despite the fact that I've previously never been impressed with any Samsung imaging. It seems to be getting better.
The best news of all is that T-Mobile is promoting this phone, rather than AT&T.
An important thing to note about all these competitive smartphones is that at some point in the future, all phones will be smartphones in one form or another. It will be cheaper to make all phones into smartphones because, to be honest about it, there is no way old phones, with any sort of buttons for dialing or typing, will be as cost effective to manufacture.
Selling a phone with one button—a power button—and a programmable touch screen is the obvious phone of the future.
Eventually, we will look back on today's $300 to $800 smartphone as an anomaly much like those old monster, brick phones of years back. The screen is the most expensive thing about a smartphone and the prices will decline over the next decade. Today's $500 phone will sell for $25 max without a plan and unlocked. You can see it headed there already.
Since there is not much more you can do with the form factor, software will be what differentiates one phone from another. Right now, we are still in an experimental era, and everything is a little pricey. It won't last, but while we are in it, you may as well enjoy this stuff while it's so new and exciting. Try out the Nexus S if you can.